I wish GM no ill will. I hope they do better now than they did in the past. Despite the sales numbers, I really would not say that the Camaro won. It was also contending against the 2010 Mustang, and maybe some leftover 2009s for the sales numbers in the calendar year 2010. The 2011 Mustang is a much more well designed car, and that makes it a shallow victory at best if the Camaro does manage to sell more. I have always been a Ford person, but if there is a well designed and reliable GM car out there that suits my needs and is competitive with the other manufacturers, I certainly will consider it.

 

I know there are a lot of variables in why what car is selling more...
but all things reversed, can you imagine if the 2004 was the last mustang and the 2011 or 2012 was a comeback year?

Throw that into your what-if's.

 

There's a lot of GM & Camaro fans out there, so the sales do not surprise me. But, this sales trend will not last.

 

Look at my face, does this look like the face of a worried man?

Okay, seriously. Long term I don't view the Camaro as a serious threat to the Mustang and frankly I don't think that Ford does either. The Camaro has limited market appeal even on a good year and the V-8 to V-6 sales mix hasn't looked good since the car came back.

To be brutally honest after nine years of pent up demand and a relatively modest production pace I would have expected demand to be higher at this point than it is. Initially I predicted that demand would drop sharply before now and that sales charts would show this to be the case, but to be honest I didn't expect GM to limit production as much as they have either and that has, IMO, shifted how things look to their advantage relative to how things actually are. (I actually think that this was a smart move by GM)

In other words demand has dropped as demonstrated by the fact that we have transitioned from ADM's to ready availability and sliding sales numbers. This is all taking place after approximately 175k Camaro sales combined since the car began production last year, a number that barely exceeds first calender year sales of the 2005 Mustang, a car that didn't take a nine year hiatus.

Honestly, I'm just not overwhelmed. GM has played the hand about as well as they could, but it ain't four aces and I think this is just about as good as it will ever get.

 

ehhe

 

I'd also be willing to wager that Ford makes more money per sold mustang than GM does on the 'maro.

 

I'm not following you. Are you suggesting that GM isn't limiting production or that they are?

Obviously without hard data we can't be sure, but I'm with you on this. The original Zeta platform has been plagued with rumors of cost overruns since the beginning, and the Zeta II platform Camaro rides on was plagued with the same before the car ever hit the road. Top that off by GM stating that the car needed to run around 90k units per year with a normal 60/40-ish V-8 to V-6 sales mix when this car debuted and it sounds like margins are relatively slim overall and that this is an expensive car to build.

In contrast Ford has done nothing but brag about the Mustang since that car debuted. early on Ford claimed that they make more money on S197 than the did on SN95, and Ford has hinted that this is a profitable platform more than once. If the car really is this profitable I would love to see Ford drop the GT's base price to something like 27,999 because I seriously suspect that would set sales on fire. There is enough cash on the hood now to get close to that, so just changing it on the sticker would work wonders IMO.

 

Yes according my figures there are almost 28573 Camaro out there for sale so they are trying to limiting production from 4-5 months back.

 

Agreed j, I remember your posts from a while back which is why I made my statement.

 

Thanks, that makes sense now. I agree that Gm is limiting production even more in recent months. Although, I will add that I think GM has been limiting production all along, they are just limiting it further now. I'm not ciriticizing that move at all, as it is the smart move to make since it makes the car seem to be in greater demand than it actually is for a longer period of time.

However, it does mean that demand isn't quite as rabid as some folks are making it out to be since production hasn't been anything like as high as it was for the 2005 Mustang for example.

 

I think this is a combination of the Camaro coming back out and zero percent financing on GM's part.

Someone running the numbers might be able to tell us if Ford actually made more money by refusing to go below 4.9 percent even though it meant losing in total sales.

 

yeah but there are other factors too, like production costs for both cars

 

Agreed and understood. But after a 15+ year hiatus, the re-introduction of the 5.0 fits into that argument too - as a counter point. There should have been a strong continuing wave from the new 5.0 (as well as the 300HP V6).

 

There a numerous record low interest rates out there. I don't think GM or Ford financing deals (or lack thereof) matter.

In fact, on my 08 Ford and my 10 Chrysler (purchased from 2 different areas/towns), neither Dealer pushed factory financing - they both offered banks and local credit unions. And by not using Chrysler's 0-60, I got their rebate.

 

Outside of us gearheads, most people have no idea what a "5.0" is; I've had to explain its significance to several people only to receive the "uh-huh" nod (meaning they have no idea what I was talking about). Everyone knows what a Camaro is, on the other hand, even little kids I saw/heard at a local car show. Face it, the new Camaro just has more recognition...much more recognition when compared to the stale, ol' Mustang.

 

You're tellin me that people - incl kids - don't know what a Mustang is??

If so, a lot of good continuous production, bajillions in continuous advertising, and countless movie cars, has done for the brand.

I disagree.

 

Please read my first sentence again as that's not what I said. I'm sure most everyone knows what a Mustang is -- Bumblebee's stale competitor. <sarcasm>. What I'm saying is that very few "regular" people know what a 5.0 is, let alone its significance; therefore, outside of us Mustang gearheads, it did little, unfortunately, to garner any Camaro-like hype. Had Ford announced the engine three years prior to releasing it, like GM did with the fifth-generation Camaro, maybe a hype train would have ensued and sales statistics would have looked a bit different.

 

who cares if it outsells.

 

oops...

 

Stockholders.